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Method and system for communicating with users of wireless devices when approaching a predetermined destination

This invention relates in general to communication with wireless devices, and relates in particular to alerting the user of a wireless device when the user is within predetermined range of a particular destination.

Convenience is an ever increasing factor in the lives of many persons. People running errands or commuting have little time or patience to deal with unnecessary tasks. Much time spent on errands often is wasted waiting in line, for example, to give a drycleaner or other business establishment a claim ticket and then wait while the appropriate product is retrieved, or to place a to-go order at a restaurant and then wait while the order is prepared. Although the amount of delay encountered for each such task may seem small in itself, the cumulative amount of those times may loom large and irritate those who are running on a tight schedule.

With the popularity and general acceptance of cellular phones and other wireless communication devices, a person possibly could call or send a text message alerting his or her impending arrival to an intended destination. That possibility becomes more difficult in actual practice, as it requires the user in advance to add telephone numbers or e-mail addresses of vendors or other destinations visited by that user. The user then would need to remember to alert each intended destination, preferably with sufficient advance notice for someone at each destination to retrieve an order or otherwise prepared for the arrival of that customer. Even if that person timely remembered to notify vendors of an impending arrival, using a cell phone or other wireless device to place those notices, including searching for the phone number or other electronic address of each intended destination while driving, may detract that person's attention from driving and thus may present a hazard. In that regard, some jurisdictions are restricting the use of cell phones or other handheld devices by vehicle operators, making it problematic at best for a person to provide advance notice by placing a cell while en route to pick-up or place an order.

Stated in general terms, the present invention notifies the user of a wireless device when that device is within a predetermined proximity to at least one entity selected by that user. The user of the wireless device thus then may send or cause to be sent an alert message to that destination, alerting the destination that a particular person or customer is approaching that destination. The user of the wireless device preferably, but not necessarily, has the option to approve sending a proximity alert to the selected destination, or may instead opt for a service in which the alert is automatically sent to the destination in response to determining the user's proximity to that destination.

The actual location of the user's cell phone or other appropriate wireless device carried by the user is determined by any suitable technique known to those skilled in the art. One such technique for locating a cellular phone is time-difference-of-arrival measurement based on signals transmitted by the cell phone and received at multiple cell-phone base stations. Other known methods to locate a wireless device include a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver-equipped cell phone that monitors and records the geographic location of the cell phone and periodically transmits that location information to a cellular service provider. Various techniques for providing geographic location information of cell phones and other wireless devices are described, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,110,749, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The present invention also contemplates sending an alert to the user's wireless device with a lead time approximately equal to an estimated time required for the user to arrive at the selected destination or otherwise based on the estimated travel time. Because that estimated time of arrival will depend on factors including the velocity of the wireless device, which is readily calculated from the location information available for that device, and by other variables such as available routing between the present location of the device and the intended destination, those variables may determine an estimated lead time for sending an alert message to the wireless device and to the intended destination. The nature of the intended destination or the intended purpose of the user's visit to a particular destination may also determine the amount of lead time. For example, relatively little lead time may be required before the user arrives at a drycleaner. A greater amount of time would likely be required if the user is heading to pick-up prepared food, such as a pizza or another takeout order requested or pre-approved by the user.

Providing advance notice of customer arrivals gives the vendor or other destination an opportunity to prepare for that arrival, thereby reducing the customer's wait time and increasing customer satisfaction. Thus, the drycleaner could fetch the user's cleaning previously dropped off, and could also charge the cost of that cleaning to a credit card or other payment technique previously authorized by the customer, subject to approval when the customer arrives and picks up the cleaning. Such advance notice thus saves time and provides greater convenience both for the user and the vendor.

Other systems, methods, or computer program products according to embodiments will be or become apparent to one with skilled in the art upon review of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, and/or computer program products be included within this description, be within the scope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing apparatus for implementing a disclosed embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B contain a flow chart illustrating a method according to the disclosed embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates typical interaction between a wireless device, such as a cell phone 110, and a wireless network 112 including a number of cell sites collectively designated at 114. The cell phone 110 includes a display screen and a keypad, as is customary. Furthermore, the cell phone 110 may be equipped with a built-in GPS receiver for receiving transmissions from GPS satellites collectively indicated at 116. The nature and operation of the GPS system is known to those skilled in the art and is not further discussed herein. (Although the present embodiment is discussed in the context of GPS-enabled cell phones communicating with a cellular wireless network, it should be understood that other wireless devices such as PDAs capable of text messaging, or of both text and voice messaging, may be employed in place of or alongside the cellular network including cellular phones 110).

The wireless service provider 112 is in radio communication with each cell phone 110 or other wireless device within range of the network of cell sites 114. The wireless service provider 112 obtains geographic location information from the cell phones 110, either from GPS information obtained by a GPS-equipped cell phone or through other geolocation techniques known in the art. This location information of the cell phones 10 is stored in a memory 120 associated with the wireless service provider 112 and is programmed as described herein to communicate with the cell phones 110 and service suppliers according to the embodiment described herein.

The wireless service provider 112 connects to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) 124 for communication with other telephone devices available on that network. The wireless service provider 112 may also connect to the Internet portal 126. Both the Internet portal 126 and the PSTN 124 may communicate with destination entities that have opted for proximity alerts according to the present invention. Those destination entities are collectively identified in FIG. 1 as service providers 128. A “service provider” may be any provider of goods or services that has opted to participate with the users of wireless devices in a program for receiving advance notice of impending customer arrivals.